Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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Tons Of Curtain Hanging Tips & A Quick Way To Hang Rods

Last fall we shared our trick for hanging affordable Ikea curtains so they look a lot more expensive than their $14 price tag per panel would suggest (across an entire house you can save thousands with that trick & these curtains alone!!). But since we were just replacing our old bedroom curtains when we wrote that post, we skipped the crucial step of actually hanging the curtain rods themselves. And since we just installed approximately one million curtains at the duplex (okay, 16 of them, but that’s a pretty notable amount to hang all at once) we wanted to share a new trick that we used to speed things up, keep everything looking level and

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#134: Where Have All The Family Photos Gone?

Today we’re sharing how to find the right balance when you’re choosing between artwork or family photos for certain walls – and we’re revealing where we’ve subconsciously gravitated towards putting personal photos in our own home (and why we think that is!). We also have tips for how to personalize your walls beyond the usual smiling-at-the-camera snapshot. And we’ve officially gone shed crazy (like really, really shed crazy), and the silver lining that we discovered after a yearlong delay at the beach house that’s saving us money and getting us excited for the summer. Plus I’m finally jumping on the crystal train. I know, it’s unexpected. What’s New Here’s a peek at the patio &

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The Tools (And Tricks) You Need To Install An Ikea Kitchen Yourself

Many of you have asked for tips and tricks to make installing an Ikea kitchen go more smoothly and look (and function) the best it possibly can. And the good news is that after installing three of them in a little over a year and a half (!!!), we have learned A TON about how to make things a little easier and help you end up with a better result. So settle in, I’ve got twenty tools & tips that can make all the difference. First off, we like Ikea cabinets and have personally installed them in five rooms: our laundry room & bonus room at home, our beach house kitchen, and now these two

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#133: The Fascinating Ways Homes Differ Around The World

Over 600 people wrote in to tell us about design norms from their specific country or region, and today we’re sharing some of the most popular, interesting, and unique responses. From the different ways we sleep and shower, to how we do laundry and how we do, um, our business – you guys gave us a fascinating window into how and why homes don’t all look alike around the globe. I also issue a public apology for fighting Sherry on a design choice in the duplex kitchen, and we share the Instagram account that’s the perfect pick me up to add to your routine. What’s New If you missed our original disagreement about the cabinetry

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A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex!

It feels like a while since you’ve seen the front of the duplex (I blame winter) but that’s going to change today. And let me tell you… THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER! There’s no landscaping yet, the grass is patchy, and Sean the Contractor’s gigantic sign is still there… … but boy oh boy is she lookin’ fynnnnnnnneee when we compare her to where we started: All of the not original details came down – like the weird plastic wagon wheels and strange abacus trim that was added in the 70s, the plastic too-small shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, all those satellite dishes, and the duct tape along the roofline. And we maintained or

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#132: Are We Sabotaging Our Sleeping Spaces?

What if there were little changes we could all make to our bedrooms and sleeping habits to sleep better and feel more rested in the morning? Today we’re talking about how a sleep expert thinks we should all be maximizing our bedrooms, including the perfect mattress size, the ideal bedtime, and what items we should banish from our bedsides. Plus, why are there such diverging practices about shoes being on or off inside people’s homes? We’re sharing our shoe rules and why they may be strange to some. Oh and we crank Sherry’s salt lamp obsession up to 11 with a visit to a salt therapy room. What’s New First things first, here are the

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The Easiest House Plants & The Best Faux Plants I’ve Found

This post is going to be full of photos, because I think they do most of the work in making a case for a house full of greenery. But like, easy greenery. That isn’t stressful and that doesn’t remind you of that emoji of dollar signs with wings. Because when things die repeatedly, it can GET YOU DOWN. Ask me how I know. The point is that I TRULY AND DEEPLY BELIEVE that nearly every single room in a home can benefit from greenery – it adds a splash of life and a gorgeous and vibrant texture. So if you’ve got some low light spots that just don’t allow anything real to live, and you’re

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Making A Light & Airy Living Room (That’s Still Livable!)

Just when you thought the duplex was getting all the action, we snuck in some beach house updates. The backyard is slowly starting to come together (shed! patio! fence! I CAN’T WAIT to show it to you once it gets a little further along!!) but today we’re diving into our lightener & brighter (and much beachier) living room. Now this place actually looks like it’s a few blocks from the beach! And the bonus is that everything is sand and popsicle friendly – which is a must for us (we pack this place with family and friends and all the kids). So our goal was never to make it too precious. In other words, we

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#131: The Surprising Side Effects Of Going TV Free

We were both pretty shocked about the results of going completely without television for a while – especially Sherry. So today we’re sharing what we learned, what was hard, and the side effects that even we didn’t see coming. Not to mention the big question of how it will impact our viewing habits moving forward. We also tried a new paint picking method to see if it could solve a wall color conundrum at the beach house. Plus, Sherry updates you on her “tooth jail” sentence and I bask in the nerdy glory of pairing paint with geography. What’s New There are some of the pink swatches we tested for the beach house living room

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My New Favorite Front Door Paint (& Tips For Painting A Door)

You know we painted our front door a new color back when we painted our brick house white in October, and I even mentioned back in that post that I used a new-ish specialty paint that’s made for front doors. It’s called Grand Entrance by Benjamin Moore and the paint color is Tranquility also by Benjamin Moore, and it can either be made in a satin base or a super hyper glossy mirror finish base. Based on all of those excited adjectives I used to describe the latter option, it should be of no surprise to you that I jumped at the chance to buy and try “high gloss” for the first time. Photos don’t

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#130: Can Science Help Us Make Our Homes Happier?

Can the colors, furnishings, and accessories that we choose for our home actually make us feel quantifiably happier? Today we dive into the science of joy and learn how some tried-and-true design tricks might actually be affecting our daily moods (and how to make tasks that we don’t love a little more enjoyable). We also pin down a few ways that we’ve unknowingly added joy to our house, and a few others that could still use some work. Plus, the lesson we learned from waiting too long to give up on a piece of furniture, and a big dollhouse fail. What’s New That’s the Instagram photo above where many of you noticed that we had

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How To Install Cabinet Hardware (With A Video!)

The duplex kitchens are looking more and more like real kitchens, and they took an especially big leap forward this past weekend after we got all of the cabinet hardware installed. But drilling holes into new cabinets can be scary and there’s not a whole lot of room for error or do-overs. So unless you’re a fan of buying a whole new door or drawer front, it’s important that you get everything centered and level on the first try. No pressure, right? Thankfully, after installing three kitchens-worth of pulls and knobs in the last year and a half, we’ve perfected our system. So here’s how you can keep things straight, centered, consistent throughout the entire

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